


Not subject to review embargos

by Alecto



Series: Can I get a mulligan? [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fictober 2020, Fluff, Gift Giving, M/M, Photographs, Post-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27475513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alecto/pseuds/Alecto
Summary: November 2013Jounouchi beta-tests what Kaiba hopes will be his company's next big product. No, this isn't just a ploy to trick his boyfriend into accepting an expensive gift.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: Can I get a mulligan? [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1550491
Comments: 24
Kudos: 105





	Not subject to review embargos

**Author's Note:**

> Fictober 2020 Day 1 prompt: “no, come back!”

"This is so cool," Jounouchi gushed. He flipped the device over to admire the back cover's pearly blue finish, a proprietary tint they had named "Ultimate Blue" for launch. As he tilted it back and forth, the KC logo in the center gleamed with a holographic shimmer when it caught the light.

Straight-backed, Kaiba resisted the urge to preen. "Cool" was precisely the impression they were aiming for. He slipped an arm around his boyfriend's shoulder and leaned closer. So he could better gauge Jounouchi's reactions and feedback as they tried the product, of course. "Well," he prompted impatiently. "Are you going to gawk at it all day long or turn it on?"

In response, Jounouchi butted his shoulder against Kaiba, but he didn't throw off his arm or wiggle away. It took him a few seconds to locate the power button on the side. As he powered on the device, the KC logo stayed on screen for several seconds before the home screen replaced it. Much like the phone's shell, blues and whites made up the OS's default color scheme.

Jounouchi peered up. His teasing smile was wide and unbearably bright. "So this is the big secret project you couldn't say anything about? A phone?"

He bristled. "Smartphone adoption rates are less than 50% around the world. It's a market with huge growth opportunities."

"So it's time to take on Steve Jobs, is it?" laughed Jounouchi. He looked down at the phone screen again and idly poked at a random icon to open the calendar app. "I dunno how useful a beta-tester I'm gonna be with this thing. The only time I've even touched a smartphone is to steal yours to play _Puzzle & Dragons_."

"Our target demographic is first-time smartphone owners, which is exactly what you are." Kaiba reached over and jabbed the home button before pulling up the app drawer, which included the icon for the game he'd preloaded for Jounouchi. "And now you can drain your batteries instead of mine."

"Sweet!" Jounouchi exclaimed and immediately opened the app to start playing. 

The game's cheery music filled the room as Kaiba sat back and watched his boyfriend swipe colorful blocks into matched sets to attack equally colorful monsters. Over time, Jounouchi sank further and further into Kaiba's arm and couch as he became engrossed in the game. 

Kaiba still remembered when Jounouchi had first begged him to download the game for him to try after learning about a Duel Monsters collaboration. He subsequently lost access to his phone for an entire evening as Jounouchi did everything in his power short of paying real money to pull a Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Ironically, and to Kaiba's annoyance, he pulled Kaiba's signature monster instead. Now the digital Blue-Eyes served as the ace monster in Jounouchi's otherwise rag-tag team.

Halfway through his energy meter, Jounouchi came back to himself. "Shit, sorry, man. You didn't give me this phone just so I could waste your time playing games."

Actually, that was why he'd asked his boyfriend to "product test" for him. The phone was three weeks away from launch. All the requisite QA and product-testing had been completed months ago. Jounouchi was getting one at the same time that tech and gadget reviewers worldwide were receiving their review copies. 

It was time, though, for Jounouchi to upgrade and join the rest of the twenty-first century. His old flip-phone had served him faithfully since before they embarked on their relationship. It had been dropped and kicked and had untold amounts of food and liquids spilled on it. Kaiba had offered to help him upgrade several times, but Jounouchi's reticence about receiving gifts from Kaiba persisted. It was one of the few things they continued to argue and butt heads over at this point in their relationship. Jounouchi couldn't shake the notion that it took advantage of Kaiba, and Kaiba resented not being allowed to do things for someone he cared about. 

Which now led to Kaiba tricking his boyfriend into taking a gift under the flimsiest pretense. 

Carefully maintaining a neutral expression, Kaiba shrugged. "You can do whatever you want with it. It's also yours to keep after testing. I can't exactly take it back to resell."

"Huh, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Okay, fine, let's get down to work. You're gonna have to show me around, though."

Kaiba smiled triumphantly and extended a hand. "May I?"

Jounouchi passed over the phone, and Kaiba launched into a brief walkthrough. Like any other device produced by his company, Kaiba could rattle off the specs in his sleep, starting with screen size, pixel density, and CPU and GPU processor power, none of which meant much to a first-time smartphone owner who had nothing to compare with. Still, Jounouchi listened without complaint as he settled comfortably against Kaiba and rested his head on his shoulder. 

But when Kaiba got to the camera, Jounouchi's interest piqued. His boyfriend sat up and snatched the phone out of his hand. "I know the perfect way to test this feature."

"How so?" 

"By taking a picture with you, duh!"

Immediately, Kaiba withdrew his arm and started to slide away.

Jounouchi grabbed and caught him in a pseudo-chokehold around his neck. "No, come back!" he protested. "Just one picture!"

Kaiba ran through the possible outcomes in his head. He could break Jounouchi's hold, which would initiate a physical contest that would either end in bruised egos or a compromising situation for his poor brother to walk in on. Either way, there was a high likelihood that the phone he'd finally convinced Jounouchi into accepting would end up smashed or broken. 

Or he could acquiesce to this one small request from his boyfriend and preserve their evening together.

"Fine," he grumbled. "But if this ends up on social media, I will hunt you down."

"God, you're such a fucking drama queen. It'll never leave this phone, I swear. No one will ever see your candid pic."

Kaiba growled, "It's called image management."

"No, you're just a prima donna," replied Jounouchi. He kept one arm firmly around Kaiba's neck as he fumbled one-handedly to bring up the camera app and switch to the front-facing camera. "Now, smile!"

The phone made a shutter noise before Kaiba could even fix his gaze forward. The resulting image, unsurprisingly, came out a mess.

"It's blurry," Jounouchi said with a furrowed brow.

"That's because you have to focus first. Give me that."

The phone changed hands again, and Kaiba deftly deleted the previous image. Using his long arm, he hefted the phone at a suitable distance for the lens to focus under the current lighting conditions. Then he tapped the screen to demonstrate how to manually trigger the focus function. "See?"

Jounouchi's image on the screen, which was pressed almost cheek-to-cheek with his, beamed. "Perfect. Now hit the button, Kaiba."

"On the count of three," muttered Kaiba, careful to not jostle the angle with his speech. His finger hovered over the shutter button. "One. Two. Three."

In that split second, Jounouchi took hold of his face and turned it to crash their lips together. Kaiba gasped, and his thumb pressed the button. There was a shutter noise. The kiss lasted for maybe a full second before Jounouchi drew away with a smug grin and mischievous eyes. While Kaiba was still stunned, Jounouchi reclaimed his phone to review the photo, quickly breaking out in fits of laughter.

"Oh my god, this is amazing!"

That finally knocked Kaiba out of his stupor. Surging forward, he caught Jounouchi's wrist and yanked the phone close. The photo he took showed him wide-eyed and brows raised in shock. He might have even been slack-jawed if Jounouchi's lips had not been locked with his. In a word, he looked ridiculous. 

He reached for the delete button.

But Jounouchi wasn't as technologically dumb as he claimed. Or he knew Kaiba too well now. His boyfriend broke free of his grip and slithered away, clutching his prize to his chest. "No, that's a keeper."

"Delete that right now!" growled Kaiba as he tried to close the distance.

Jounouchi hefted the device over his head in a vain attempt to keep it out of his reach. "Bite me, Kaiba."

He pounced and knocked Jounouchi to the floor, sending the new phone skidding across the floor. To keep Kaiba from his goal, Jounouchi pinned him to the ground and heatedly kissed him again. A master class in distraction, Kaiba hated to admit, and one that worked well. He wove his fingers into Jounouchi's hand and held him tight to his chest. 

Good thing Kaiba preemptively reinforced the device's frame on account of being well-acquainted with his boyfriend's somewhat clumsy nature. There wasn't even a scratch on the screen when they finally picked it up again much, much later.


End file.
